Are You A Sugar Addict?

Do you crave chocolate or sugary treats? Do you have energy slumps or need caffeine to get you going in the morning or get you through the day? Are you addicted to sugar?

The thing about sugar is that it is everywhere, we can get our hands on it any time of day or night. We feed it to our children yet scientists have proven that sugar is addictive and stimulates the same pleasure centres in the brain as cocaine or heroin. We wouldn’t dream of giving our kids hard drugs then why do we give them so much sugar encouraging a habit that can form a dependency and lead to greater health problems such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease?

In Ireland, we are number 4 in the world in terms of sugar consumption and eat a whopping 96g per day which is the equivalent of 24 teaspoons per person. The WHO recommends no more than 6 teaspoons per day for a person of average weight. Clearly, we have a sugar problem.

In 2014, a Californian study asked 20 people to cut out all added sugar and artificial sweeteners for 2 weeks. Initially, participants craved sugar but after giving it up: